We welcome special guest Elizabeth Leiba! Elizabeth has been teaching Black History and Culture for over a decade, has been quoted in the New York Times (and other prestigious publications), and founded Black History and Culture Academy. We talk about the bigger picture of racism in America, and how understanding it can boost our emotional intelligence. Check out her site -- https://www.blackhistorycultureacademy.com/ -- and use the coupon code: HEI2021 for half-off your first month. (That’s HEI2021, as in H- for “Hacking,” E- for “Emotional,” and I for “Intelligence.”) Enjoy!
We welcome special guest Elizabeth Leiba! Elizabeth has been teaching Black History and Culture for over a decade, has been quoted in the New York Times (and other prestigious publications), and founded Black History and Culture Academy. We talk about the bigger picture of racism in America, and how understanding it can boost our emotional intelligence. Check out her site -- https://www.blackhistorycultureacademy.com/ -- and use the coupon code: HEI2021 for half-off your first month. (That’s HEI2021, as in H- for “Hacking,” E- for “Emotional,” and I for “Intelligence.”) Enjoy!
#31: Racism In America - Elizabeth Leiba, Part 1
Tyler Small: Hey guys, today we have the special honor to talk with Elizabeth Leiba, founder of Black History and Culture Academy, and a LinkedIn top voice. She's an award-winning woman. She teaches college courses. She is everywhere on the web. She is a distinguished speaker and she is, uh, an influencer - she's a real influencer. And I'm so excited to have her on. She's also what I would call an emotional intelligence hacker. Welcome Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Leiba: Hi, Tyler. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Tyler Small: I'm so excited to have you today. I have a list of questions today. I hope we can get through them. But I wanted to just thank you for honoring us with your voice and your perspective. I found your posts on LinkedIn and your live LinkedIn. And I've dug through some of the courses that you have on your website.
And it's all just so exciting. And so mind expanding. I have just as many blind spots, maybe more than, than anyone. And so being exposed to you has been just such a miracle in my life. And I wanted to thank you for that.
Elizabeth Leiba: Oh, you're very, very welcome. It's my pleasure. It's definitely something that is close to my heart being an educator. So I'm happy that I've been able to touch you in that way.
Tyler Small: Wonderful. So the first question I have for you is can you tell us a little bit about your background?
Elizabeth Leiba: Sure. Uh, I get that question a lot just because of, I have a, probably a very different background than a lot of people. I'm not from the United States. I'm actually an immigrant. I'm from the UK, I was born in London, my parents are Jamaican. And I've lived in South Florida since I was about 12. So, I grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood on the side of Fort Lauderdale. My high school was 90% black. So a lot of culture shock just coming from the UK; it was really different. So just kind of, navigating a lot of that is probably what framed my perspective because I always felt like an outsider. So I was always kind of observing everything around me and trying to find my culture fit. And a lot of that culture fit came from reading the narrative that I gained from Maya Angelou and a lot of amazing authors - women, uh, Alice Walker, Tony Morrison. So that's how I first really dug into the idea of reading and how I wanted to really become, and actually ended up becoming an American literature professor because of just my love for books.
Tyler Small: That's really cool. So this is a very unique entry into life. And I saw a lot of posts from you during Black History Month, during February, and loved your posts. So eye-opening for me. What is the most important thing that people forget about Black History Month?
Elizabeth Leiba: I think the biggest takeaway for me that I have been talking about for Black History Month is that black history cannot be studied in just one month. Right? That idea that Black History Month was conceptualized originally by Carter G. Woodson. So it started as Negro History Week in the early nineteen-hundreds. Around 1900. And Carter G. Woodson wanted to memorialize black history and make sure that the history of black folk in America was not forgotten because, a people that have no knowledge of their own history literally will be marginalized out of existence.
So that's where black history month began in the early nineteen-hundreds. And we celebrate black history for a month. But, there's really no national standard for black history. So I think the biggest takeaway that I try to impart to people is that black history needs to be a part of, integrated as a part of curriculum. And we know that that hasn't been done in K through 12; it definitely isn't done in college - but I teach college, so I know that's something that typically isn't required, unless it's like a minor or something that's a part of your major coursework. You literally won't ever take a black history course unless it's an elective.
So it's really important that people understand that black history should be studied 365 days a year. That will be my biggest takeaway, I think. Especially this year.
Tyler Small: Love it. And it's such a huge part of our nation. Both, I mean, in terms of always for sure. But especially there's so much going on and it seems like we can either just glom on to current events that are happening, or we can really study black history and try and gain an understanding for what, what it is and what's behind it.
Elizabeth Leiba: Yeah, because of the connection between history and today, and the future is something that I'm always thinking about. Like what's happening today, didn't happen in a vacuum. So typically anything that's happening, even if you put on the news today. And you look at events - whether it's the student loan debt crisis, whether it's COVID response, events that have happened all around the world, and we're talking about globally - those things didn't just start today. Somewhere there's an origin.
So the history of black folk in America, also the same thing. When we think about marginalization of black folk, or any other issues in terms of everything that's happened in our country over the past year, where people have been really glued to their television sets, or glued to, um, social media looking at protests around the country, like where did this all come from? And it definitely didn't start in a vacuum. It didn't start as of last year when George Floyd was murdered. These events have historical context. It's important for us to understand those so we can move forward in a positive direction.
Tyler Small: I love that. From an emotional intelligence standpoint, I think that in order to be emotionally intelligent in the workplace today, and really anywhere, you need to understand these types of issues, and you need to have an exposure to them so that you can speak to them and react to them in appropriate ways.
Elizabeth Leiba: Absolutely. And I think a lot of emotional intelligence, being able to put yourself in other people's shoes, being able to have the proper responses emotionally and culturally sensitive responses - there isn't a way to do that unless you're coming from a frame of reference and you have context in what you're responding to. Right? So I think definitely having that ability to be empathetic, definitely having that ability to be sensitive and understand someone else's journey and be able to respond in kind, whether you're a leader, whether you're working on a team, having those appropriate, um, foundations and scaffolding for how you interact with others is key to being able to be effective in today's workplace, especially as it becomes more and more diverse. And we'll see that over the next 20 years. So that's what's going to happen - basically the Census Bureau tells us that. So we have to be ready.
Tyler Small: Absolutely. I have this question that I want to set up in terms of a scenario. I want to give a scenario as we talk about this next question and in order to kind of embed this and hopefully help it to be more actionable for individuals who are wondering like, Hey, what, what's the big deal about with black history anyway? So for an individual who's white and they are trying to work with someone who's black... I've heard you answer this question before, which is why I'm asking it at this time. But if they have this question in their mind and they say, wow, why, why don't black people just pull themselves up by their bootstraps?
Like what's the big deal here? What's the big problem? Like why do I need to empathize with somebody who looks a little different than me and why don't they have an equal advantage to me? What's the big deal? Can you explain that a little more?
Elizabeth Leiba: Yeah, I think that it's important for people in the majority culture and just everybody, even black folk don't understand this, I think, sometimes, and it's really basically the narrative of history and how a lot of us are just not informed about law, and about historically how black people have been marginalized in this country.
So a lot of people, including myself, I'm an immigrant. The frame of reference is: Hey, you come here, and if you're from somewhere else or if you're born here, equal access to education, equal access to opportunity, equal access to jobs. You just go when you work hard. And Martin Luther King said this very famously in his speeches; it's really unfair to ask a man to pull himself up by his bootstraps when he doesn't have boots.
So literally what's happened to black folks in America is that black folk were emancipated from - black folk were enslaved. I mean, it's just the reality of what happened - that was what happened historically. So, we're sent out into the country in 1865, and literally since that time have been trying to make up the wealth gap. And the wealth gap literally has, it's so big in this country now they can never be overcome because you have black folks that never had the same access. And literally Civil Rights Act was passed 1955 and 1964. So, we have 50 years, less than a lifetime, for black people to even have access. And then even since that time have still been marginalized in a lot of ways - whether it's through housing discrimination with red lining; whether it's through schools that are typically and have always been, in black neighborhoods, underfunded. And I went to one myself and I could say with my own eyes, I saw that we didn't have books. We didn't have resources. And a lot of people say, well, how can that be? Well, that's because property taxes are what funds the schools, and if those schools in that neighborhood don't have the same property values, then the school is not going to have the same access to resources because of funding. So there's a lot of things in terms of the mechanics of how the country works, access to healthcare, access to health insurance, access to it, you name it. There really isn't anything that is equal in, um, black communities and really communities of color, but particularly black neighborhoods are typically the most marginalized.
So yeah, it's really unfair to say, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, because you don't have the same access. And I think a lot of people have this concept in their mind that everyone has equal access to everything and it's just, if you work hard, then you can get it. And that's just simply not true.
Tyler Small: Your words are just so, so beautiful to me, because they're explaining something that, I mean, I remember - so I grew up, mostly in, uh, so I was born in Southern California, where there was, uh, it was a lot of diversity, but then when I was seven, we moved to Washington state, Southwest Washington state, and there wasn't a whole lot of diversity. And so, I think some of these thought patterns were extremely pervasive in that culture. I mean, it's, it's practically everywhere, right? But, I remember thinking that, right? I, that was a thought that I grew up with. Oh, well, Why can't they just, you know, go get a scholarship and just go to college, right? What you said just now is so germane.
Also, I remember - if I can share briefly something from your LinkedIn Live that was posted on the main page of your website. And if you're listening to this, go, go jump on there before something hops up on her website and check it out. It's really cool. One thing you said is, from a literal sense, in your perspective, you were living in Florida and somebody would say, well, you know, just pull yourself up by your bootstraps. And you'd look down at your feet, and you're like, I'm in Florida. I wear sandals. I don't even have a pair of boots. I don't even know where to buy boots. And that just the literalness of that situation seems to extend that analogy and really show like, Oh my goodness, that is really not an option in, in many of these cases, in so many of these cases. And so, um, you know, certainly there are exceptions. And I think, I think as well, one of the broken parts of my brain said, Oh, well look at President Obama. If he can do it, then anyone can do it. And what would you say -
Elizabeth Leiba: Yeah, there's always exceptions, right? There's always Oprah. There's always president Obama. There's Michael Jordan. There's always exceptions to the rule. But by and large, if you have a group of people - and it doesn't matter, it doesn't have to be black people, it can be anybody - and when you look at the statistics, that group of people. It's always at the bottom of the hierarchy in terms of wellbeing. And if you look statistically across the board, that they're always marginalized, then something is wrong with the system.
Like, if I teach a class, I'm a college professor. So I always give this example. I teach class, and every time I teach that class, a majority of students fail. I wouldn't have my job, because they're not going to say it's the students' fault, they're gonna say it's my fault. What am I doing in that class, that every time I offered that class, a majority students fail because statistically speaking students should be successful - they didn't come there to waste money, right? They're not wanting to fail. So if every single class I'm failing the majority of my students, I have to be yourself reflective and say, well, what am I doing? What can I do better?
As a country, we just don't do that. We say, well, you didn't want it bad enough; that statistically speaking, if everyone in your demographic is failing, that means maybe those people are just lazy. And I know on a college campus, we don't say that about students. We don't say, well, everyone in your class is just lazy. They will come to you as an instructor and say, Hey, we've got to get your outcomes up, because every time you teach a class, your students are failing. What's happening. Right?
Tyler Small: Yeah.
Elizabeth Leiba: So it's pretty much the same. It's like, it's practical. Like if you were on your job and every time you're interacting with clients, all the clients are saying, Hey Tyler is rude. Tyler didn't give me the proper service. They're not going to say the clients are wrong; they're going to come to you and say, what are you doing? You're interacting with the clients every time we are getting a poor score, as far as your customer service. Like, let's look at what's happening. They're not going to blame the client because obviously if all the clients are saying - not just one person - all the clients are saying the same thing about you, then something's going on and we need to address that so that you can be better.
And as a country, we don't ever look at the country, and say that the country needs to improve outcomes for this demographic. We always say, well hey, that demographic doesn't want it bad enough. Right?
Tyler Small: Absolutely right. And so I think another... I think it pushes us going down that path pushes us to a decision that we either need to decide in our minds that: okay there's something inherently wrong with this group of people, and we believe in racism and we believe that certain races are above each other; or, the system is broken. Like it's, it's pretty much either one or the other, once you start opening up those cans.
Elizabeth Leiba: Yeah. I mean, like literally you hit the nail on the head. Like, are we saying that black folk are just inherently not as smart? So that's the reason why we're not at the board room table. We're not presidents of major corporations. We were not graduating at the same rate. We're marginalized in healthcare, disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system... We just, we just are... animals? Because that's literally what that... That's what people are proposing. Right? That black people just don't, can't cut it and other races can. But then, you know, if one race is always successful, then you have literally a hierarchy of, of like the brown and then you go to the black race and then it's literally, and then the only people that are actually getting it done are immigrants, usually. It's like, well, immigrants are getting it done. But immigrants are coming from a... I'm an immigrant, and I can tell you for sure, we come from a whole different frame of reference.
So I think that, that some of these arguments just don't hold water. So we have to start looking in the mirror. Toni Morrison said it: take me out of it. That's literally what she told Charlie Rose in an interview. She's like, white people need to go look in the mirror and figure out what's wrong; because something is wrong, and we can't fix it. Us black folk can't fix it; you guys need to fix it. And that's literally, it's not an indictment against all of white America, but it's literally just practically how can black people fix a system that they're really not necessarily a part of.
So there has to be more of a commitment to say - just like I would in the classroom: Okay, all of my students - 75% of my students - I look at this demographic of students that I serve. 75% of them are failing. What can I do to make my class more accessible and more able for them to be successful rather than me blaming the students say, well, this student just doesn't want it bad enough. The student doesn't want it bad enough and they're just going to fail. Like, I would never do that. And I think as a country, that's a part of the problem. There isn't a reckoning of, let's be self-reflective and see why this demographic of people are not able to be successful. There has to be a problem here.
Tyler Small: I completely agree that the people who are dominant, whoever they are, are responsible - they have a much higher responsibility to respond to issues where someone's needs are being neglected.
Elizabeth Leiba: Correct.
Tyler Small: And I also want to give you some credit for... you said that the black people aren't able to fix this problem. And I, and I completely agree that they're not able to fix it alone , and that the majority of the, of the onus should fall on the people who have the majority of the resources. I also, though, want to give you some credit for helping me change the way I think, Elizabeth. You're standing up, you've invested your life to help people see more correctly, more accurately, how the world is and unite the people of this planet. So I just wanted to thank you for that, for stepping up and for being a great influence in this world.
Elizabeth Leiba: Thank you. I appreciate that. And it's just my mission. I feel it's really important to be able to, you're doing the same thing. You're using your voice, using your superpower. So whatever our sphere of influence is whatever we can do to make the world a better place. And I just feel that that's our responsibility to do it because we're on this planet. We're sucking up resources. I think about sustainability, right, across the globe - that's like the big thing now. So what can we do to make the world a better place? And we're all connected. We see that with the pandemic: that we're all literally, globally, we're all connected. And decisions that I make can influence my community, can influence my county, my state, the world. So how can I influence that in a positive way so that all of us can be successful together and win together because that's what ultimately, I think we should all want for each other.
Tyler Small: Thank you. Thank you so much. We're going to have a coupon code in the description and this will get you half-off to Black History and Culture Academy. There's also a couple of free courses on there. Awesome, awesome material. It'll help you see what the big deal is. What's the big deal about racism? If you're wondering that, go to this site, it's a great, great resource there. And a lot of people talking about this in very, very intelligent ways. In very productive ways, very tactful. I promise you won't be shamed or anything like that as you go to learn openly.
Thank you again, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Leiba: Thank you. Thank you for having me, Tyler.
Tyler Small: I'm Tyler Small, and this is hacking emotional intelligence.
Next episode will also be with Elizabeth and we're going to go into very specific strategies for how we can be more emotionally intelligent in an interpersonal context. This has been the big picture view, and we're going to go down more into the micro view of how to communicate more effectively with one another. So, we'll see you in the next episode.